Johann Sebastian Bach
Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens
“Bring to the Lord the glory of his name”
(Cantata BWV 148) 

The texts and the music in most of Bach’s cantatas are elaborations of the concerns expressed in the Gospel and Epistle readings for the day. But this work for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity is something of a mystery. The texts read on that Sunday are St. Luke 14:1–11 — which reports a debate with Pharisees about the proper use of the Sabbath — and Ephesians 4:1–6 — in which the apostle urges believers to behave in ways that are worthy of their high vocation.

The theme of this cantata is the centrality of joyous worship in the life of the believer. That could be read, with a bit of stretching, as a byproduct of fitting use of the Sabbath and worthy behavior by believers. But the texts of the cantata could be applied so generally that it would be appropriate for must Sundays and feast days of the year.

The opening chorus enjoins the congregation with texts from Psalm 29:2 and 96:8 to “Bring to the Lord the glory of his name, pray to the Lord in holy splendour.” Julian Mincham writes:

The text is but one line, albeit expressing two ideas which Bach seizes upon for his musical architecture — Give the Lord the glory of His name — worship the Lord in holy adornment. The first four trumpet bars are a rhythmically bold and largely unadorned ‘head’ statement designed initially to catch the ear and subsequently to carry the first part of the message on the choir’s entry. It then dissolves into typical Bachian . . . melody, seemingly not wanting to end, joyously caught up in its own exuberance. . . . On its first entry the choir adopts the opening phrase, extends it and, in a mere eight bars, announces the complete text! . . . The symbolism is not difficult to fathom; individual expression of worship and eulogy naturally expands and multiplies until it becomes a universal declamation extending throughout the very universe.

Here is a performance of that opening chorus by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.

Gardiner offers these thoughts about this cantata:

“The first part of the Gospel for the day (Luke 14:1–11) deals with the legitimacy of healing on the Sabbath, but here the emphasis is on the need to observe its inviolability — always a bit of a poser for the church musician, this being the busiest day of his week, and one that Bach skirts neatly in the tenor aria (No. 2) by trumpeting not just the virtues of Sunday church attendance, where one may hear ‘the teachings of life’, but the propriety of his ‘joyous music . . . in praise of the Almighty’. In his day an estimated 9,000 Leipzig citizens (out of a population of under 30,000) headed for church on a Sunday morning. Bach depicts this joyful rush in the way the violin is kept going with little rest from start to finish, but you wonder whether he isn’t also alluding to his own breathless dash across town from St Thomas’s to St Nicholas’s (each with a seating capacity of around 2,500), or vice versa, each Sunday.

Here is the text in the tenor aria Gardiner had in mind:

Ich eile, die Lehren
I hurry to hear

Des Lebens zu hören
the teaching of life

Und suche mit Freuden das heilige Haus.
and seek with joy the holy house.

Wie rufen so schöne
What a beautiful proclamation

Das frohe Getöne
in joyful sounds

Zum Lobe des Höchsten die Seligen aus!
the blessed make in praise of the Almighty!

Gardiner conducted the performance below of this relentless aria as sung by tenor Mark Padmore, accompanied by the English Baroque Soloists.

The other aria in this cantata is for an alto soloist. The text reflects the deep piety of an earnest believer.

Mund und Herze steht dir offen,
My mouth and heart stand open to you,

Höchster, senke dich hinein!
Almighty, come down to me!

Ich in dich, und du in mich;
I in you and you in me;

Glaube, Liebe, Dulden,Hoffen
faith, love, endurance, hope

Soll mein Ruhebette sein.
will be the bed where I rest.

This aria is sung in a performance below by alto Bogna Bartosz, with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra conducted by Ton Koopman.

The entire cantata is performed in the video below. The performers are the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, director. The energetic violin soloists is Maya Homburger, the alto soloist is Frances Bourne, and Mark Padmore is the tenor soloist.